Appalachia Rising

Rural Appalachia has long been portrayed in the media as a place of victims: people at the mercy of the region’s poverty or bigotry. In this episode, SOTRU turns that notion of Appalachia on its head, telling stories of residents fighting for the well-being of their land, people and culture. We travel to southern West Virginia, where former coal miners and their families are fighting mountain-top removal mining and a small town is reinventing itself. Then, we visit Eastern Kentucky, where a community radio show has inspired an outpouring of activism.